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But
first, on earth as Vampire sent,
Thy corpse shall from the tomb be rent:
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race;
There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life;
Yet loathe the banquet which perforce
Must feed thy livid living corpse.
Shall know the demon for their sire,
At cursing thee, thou cursing them,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem.
-Lord Byron, The
Giaour - A Fragment of a Turkish Tale, 1813, reputedly the first
reference to vampires in English literature
I have a personal dislike to Vampires, and the little acquaintance
I have with them would by no means induce me to reveal their secrets."
-Lord
Byron
The
Vampire Creed
I worship my ego and I worship my life, for I am the only God that is.
I am proud that I am a predatory animal and I honor my animal instincts.
I exhalt my rational mind and hold no belief that is in defiance of reason.
I recognize the difference between the world of truth and fantasy.
I acknowledge the fact that survival is the highest law.
I acknowledge the Powers of Darkness to be hidden natural laws through which
I work my magic.
I know that my beliefs in Ritual are fantasy but the magic is real, and I respect
and acknowledge the results of my magic.
I realize there is no heaven as there is no hell, and I view death as the destroyer
of life.
Therefore I will make the most of life here and now.
I am a Vampire
Bow down before me.
-G.
Gordon Melton, The Vampire Book
Vampires
are lucky: they can feed on others.
We gotta eat away at ourselves.
We gotta eat our legs, so that we got the energy to walk.
We gotta come so that we can go.
We gotta suck ourselves off.
We gotta eat away at ourselves
'til there's nothing left but appetite.
-From
'The Bad Lieutenant'
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The
Origins of the Term 'Vampire' |
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F.
Miklosich, an eminent scholar of Slavic languages, claims that
'vampire'
derives from ‘uber’, the Turkish word for witch. But undoubtedly
the source of 'vampire' is the Hungarian word ‘vampir’.
-McNally,
Raymond T., A Clutch of Vampires
...if
we look at the earliest derivations of the word "vampire" itself,
we find that its common root from most of the Mediterranean languages
is formed from "vam", meaning blood, and "pyr", meaning monster..."blood-monster"...
In
other languages, such as those closer to Dracula's home, there
are
similar meanings in almost every language. The very earliest reference
to the word arises in Slavonia in the Magyar form "vampir", which
is the same in Russian, Polish, Czech, Serbian and Bulgarian, with
some variations: "vapir", "vepir", "veryr", "vopyr", "upier". In
Lithuanian derivations there is an interesting variation on the
idea of the vampire being not just a blood-monster but a blood-drunk.
The word that gives rise to the idea of a vampire is a mixture of
"wempti", meaning to drink, and "wampiti", to growl or mutter, and
the use of the word gave an intonation of drunkenness. In Croatia
the word for the vampire was "pijauica", meaning one who is red-faced
with drink. In Albania the name for vampire means the restless dead,
and in Greece and the surrounding territories there is no word for
vampire at all. In the European languages the name has always been
somewhat similar: Danish and Swedish "vampyr", Dutch "vampir",
French "le vampire", Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
"vampiro", modern Latin "vampyrus". In the Oxford English Dictionary
in its earlier editions the definition is :
A preternatural being of a malignant nature (in the original unusual
form of the belief an animated Corpse ), supposed to seek nourishment
and do harm by sucking the blood of sleeping persons; a man or woman
abnormally endowed with similar habits.
[I
was recently e-mail about this word: ["It (the quote) said
the Dutch word for Vampire is 'vampir' when in fact it is spelled
'vampier'. Well, just to be sure I looked it up in the dictionary.
Vampier is the only correct spelling. But it did mention the origin
of the word was the German or Hungarian vampir, so it might have
been spelled this way once." I've double checked with the book
and I've quoted it correctly. Perhaps it was a spelling error that
was
not corrected by the editors or maybe the book is using the origin
of the Dutch word instead. Thank you Joachim!]
-Dunn
Mascetti, Manuela. Vampires: The Complete Guide to the World of
the Undead
Vlad
the Impaler (1431-1476) is considered to be the original historical
Dracula that Bram Stoker used as a 'model' for his 1897 novel ‘Dracula’.
Vlad’s father, also known as Vlad, joined the Order of the Dragon
shortly after his son’s birth in Schassburg, Transylvania. The
name 'Dracula' means 'son of Dracul', or son of the dragon or evil.
-G.
Gordon Melton, The Vampire Book
According
to Hindu mythology, ‘Ralarati’ was both a witch and a vampire. In
Assyrian demonology, the ‘Ekimmu’ was a vampire demon. The Singalese
called him ‘Katakhanes’, while the Burmese worshipped their ‘Swawmx’.
The classical Greeks were afraid of the bisexual demon ‘Lamina’,
who stole children and sucked their blood. In Solomonic legend,
‘Ornias’ was a handsome vampire. A Slavic expression for vampire
is ‘Vikodlak’, while in Poland these are called ‘Upirs’. Even in
remote valleys and clustering villages of Greece, the vampire stalks,
unquestioned and accepted as ‘Brucolacas’.
-Varma,
Devendra P., Voices from the Vaults
Vampires
in Australia are called ‘yara-ma-yha-who’ in aboriginal cultures.
This vampire-like being is said to be four feet tall, entirely
red,
with a large head and mouth, and no teeth, who swallows his food
whole.
-G.
Gordon Melton, The Vampire Book |
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Dictionary
Definitions |
Vam*pire
n. 1. a reanimated corpse said to suck the blood of sleeping persons
at night. 2. a person who preys ruthlessly upon others. 3. vamp(2).
-The
Random House Dictionary, 1980 Edtion
vampire,
n. bloodsucker, bat; parasite. SLANG siren, seducer, vamp, temptress
-The
New American Roget's College Thesaurus, 1978 Edition
Vamp
(2) n. 1. a charming, unscrupulous woman who exploits or ruins
men she seduces. -v.t., v.i. 2. to allure or seduce (a man) by
playing
the vamp.
-The
Random House Dictionary, 1980 Edtion
Vam*pir*ism
n. 1.belief in the existence of vampires. 2. the acts or practices
of vampires.
-The
Random House Dictionary, 1980 Edtion |
The
Methods of Becoming a Vampire |
A
very common belief, reported not only from eastern Europe but also
from China, holds that a person becomes a revenant when an animal
jumps over him. In Romania, there is a beliefe that a bat can transform
a corpse into a vampire by flying over it.
-Masters,
Anthony. The Natural History of the Vampire |
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Their
Methods of Feeding |
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When
vampires and revenants in European folklore suck blood--many
do
not--they bite their victims somewhere on the thorax. Among the
Kashubes, a Slavic people of northern Europe, vampires chose
the
area of the left breast; among the Russians, they left a small
wound in the area of the ear; and in Dazig (now Gdansk), they
bit the
victim’s nipples.
-Masters,
Anthony. The Natural History of the Vampire
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Reasons
Behind Gravestones |
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The
gravestone was placed above the head of the body in the grave so
that, if a returning spirit should occupy the dead, the body would
not be able to sit up. Only criminals, alcoholics and great sinners
were not accorded formal burial, just the sorts of character one
might expect to be occupied by floating souls! Where there was no
gravestone a vampire could come to life again. Where there was moral
weakness, therefore, life could be forever.
-Dunn-Mascetti,
Manuela. Vampire- the Complete Guide to the World of the Undead |
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Well,
I think vampires and vampirism are a very clear metaphor for sex.
Male vampires almost never bite males and female vampires almost
never bite females. Very clearly, it's a sexual thing. And vampires
get to take whatever they want whenever they want it. Vampires don't
need wallets or credit cards. They like something, they take it.
-James Marsters, who plays Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (The
Realm)
For
the vampire must kill, his duty being to bring evil to the communities
of fair men, for he is the servant of she who is insatiable - Mistress
Death.
-VAMPIRE:
Complete Guide
One
sign of the vampire is the power of the hand.
-Joseph
Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873)
For
the blood is the life . . .
-Unknown
The
lips which will be markedly full and red are draen back from the
teeth which gleam long, sharp as razors, and ivory white.
-Montague
Summers, The Vampire, His Kith and Kind (1928)
Vampire:
the animated corpse that preys upon the living, usually by night,
sucking blood to continue its existence.
-Olga
Hoyt, Lust For Blood (1984)
Goodie-two-shoes:
Tell me, I'd like to know. What did my blood taste like?
The Filthy Beast: Delicious...now come on.
Goodie-two-shoes: No, no, no, no...I'm being serious. What
did it taste like?
The Filthy Beast: Well, how would I know, I'm not a vampire.
Goodie-two-shoes: Oh, oh...was it salty?
The Filthy Beast: A little salty.
Goodie-two-shoes: Too salty!
The Filthy Beast: No, it was just right.
Goodie-two-shoes: No...you thought it was too salty. I can
tell, you didn't like it.
The Filthy Beast: No, no, I liked it.
Goodie-two-shoes: Oh, really?
The Filthy Beast: I liked it.
Goodie-two-shoes: You're not just saying that?
The Filthy Beast: Great blood!
-The
Filthy Beast (Cary Grant) and Goodie-two-shoes (Leslie Caron),
Father Goose (1964)
It
is natural to die through loss of blood, it is logical to think
one could live again through drinking blood.
-Masters,
Anthony. The Natural History of the Vampire
Note
that when a saint’s body failed to decompose it was a miracle,
but when the body of an unpopular person failed to decompose
it was
because he was a vampire.
-Masters,
Anthony. The Natural History of the Vampire
Vampires
provided a perfect mirror of the worst fears of the pious and perfect.
Vampires were dangerous, sexually rampant, enormously powerful,
absolutely unconcerned about human dignity and preservation of
the
soul, and finally...dead. And it was this last aspect of their
nature that made them the most fascinating to legend-makers.
-Dunn
Mascetti, Manuela. Vampires: The Complete Guide to the World of
the Undead
Vampires
are popular because, of all the monsters, they're the most dangerous...the
most human. Their habitat is night, and you cannot tell who's a
vampire and who's not. Everyone loves the vicarious danger.
-Charles
L. Grant, author of 'The Soft Whisper of the Dead
Women
are interested in terror for the sake of terror.
-Bela
Lugosi, who played Dracula several times
Men
are attreacted to him because of the irresistible power he wields.
For women there is the complete abandonment to the power of a man...It
is like being a sexual blood donor. What greater evidence of giving,
than your blood flowing from your own bloodstream.
-Christopher
Lee, who played Dracula almost a dozen times
We've
trivialized the vampire. I think it happened about the time 'Count
Chocula' found its way to cereal boxes.
-F.
Paul Wilson, author 'Midnight Mass' a vampire novella
A
close analysis will show that the only emotions which in the long
run harm are those arising from sexual impulses, and when we have
realized this we have put a finger on the actual point of danger.
...A number of books have been published in England that would be
a disgrace to any country less civilized than our own. They are
meant by both authors and publishers to bring to the winning of
commercial success the forces of evil inherent in man. The evil
is grave and dangerous, and may, if it does not already, deeply
affect the principles and lives of the young people of this country.
-Bram
Stoker, author of "Dracula"
"You
mean you want the woman for yourself," Mr. Lorpicar said with cynical
contempt.
"No, I don't take those that are unwilling." He heard Mr. Lorpicar
's incredulous laugh. "It isn't the power and the blood, Mr. Lorpicar,"
he sais, with such utter loneliness that the tall man was silenced.
"It is the touching."
-Chelsea
Quinn Yarbro,"Cabin 33"
On
swift tail flaming
From storm and south
He comes, pale vampire,
Mouth to my mouth.
-James
Joyce, "Ulysses"
He
held up his cross and pressed it against the window. She hissed,
as if scalded...hung suspended in the air, her body becoming misty
and indistinct. Then, gone. But not before he saw (or thought he
saw) a look of desperate unhappiness on her face.
-Stephen
King, "Salem's Lot"
For
all those vampires who eschew blood but want to keep up appearances,
Damien Vanian, London's most famous living vampire, offers this
recipe for a blood substitute. According to Damien, it delivers
the taste and consistency of clotting blood without the risks of
illness associated with blood drinking. Take a liter container and
fill it half and half with tomato juice and orange juice. Stir well,
let the mixture sit for a while, and then serve warm, preferably
at body temperature (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit). For adventure, replace
the plain tomato juice with Bloody Mary mix, clam and tomato juice,
or spicy tomato juice.
-Rosemary
Ellen Guiley
Fun?
How would you like to go around dressed like a headwaiter for the
last seven hundred years?
-Count
Dracula to Reinfield in "love at First Bite" 1979
The
power of the vampire is very great and many-sided, even in his
lifetime can kill people and even eat them alive; can bring into
being, or
remove, various sicknesses and epidemics, storms, rain, hail, and
such; he casts spells on cows and their milk, the crops and the
husbandry generally; he knows all secrets and future, ect. Because
this he can make himself invisible or transform himself into various
objects, especially into animal forms.
-a
verse from Galician folklore Oh
you never see a vampire with a full-grown beard, Yet a vampire can't
see his reflection. So no facial hair is unbelieveably weird, 'cause
you'd think shaving'd be out of the question.
-Red Green
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